eBay Suspension – The saga continues!

As you may or may not know, my eBay account was suspended over 1 1/2 months ago for the vague reason of being “associated with a previously suspended user”. I was given that users name, and that is it. This user hadn’t used his account in 5 years, and so I thought it was strange that somehow I (and my mom, and my dad) were randomly selected to have their accounts suspended. Here is an update of my struggle to get my account reinstated.

The first steps I took were, of course, to reply to accusations and dispute them. I was sent a form letter saying I should reply to the form letter and restate my disputes and they may or may not reply, depending on whether they think my arguments are good enough or not. So I responded to the form letter. I then received another form letter telling me to fill out a form and fax/mail it in to eBay’s INV Appeals. I quickly did this, spending some money and some gas to get the fax out quickly, and then waited for the reply.

And waited.

And waited.

It has now been nearly a month since I sent in the fax, and still no reply. So today I decided to be a little more proactive.

I found eBay’s 1-888 number and gave them a call. I was promptly told to hang up the phone, and go use their online customer service. Jeesh. Retarded.

So I go and use their live help, and select the topic closest to “my account was suspended for no good reason and I want it back but you are dragging your feet”, which happened to be “Other”.

And I waited.

Finally “Benie T.” came on to help me with my problem. I was directed to a contact form. The page came up 404. Hmm. Thats useful. So he gave me another link which actually did lead me to a contact form. I was promised I would receive an actual response and not a form letter. I highly doubt that I will, but we’ll see.

What makes this all even worse is that eBay has $14 of my dollars sitting in my account that I can’t spend or withdrawal. After about 45 minutes of being bounced around customer service someone finally directed me to the request a refund page, which says it may take up to a month before they get around to sending me my money. Jeesh. Freaking monopolistic eBay.

As if it isn’t bad enough that 90% of the items on eBay are spam that blatantly violate eBay polocies (search for “runescape”), but to top it off they can suspend you for any reason or no reason, and take no effort on their part to help you get it resolved.

Bottom line: I hate eBay.

104 comments

I have the exact same problem. A buyer opened a dispute over an item and wham, ebay suspended my account and won’t even tell me why as it can highlight their methods to potential fraudsters! So how can I get back on? I had almost 400 feedback at 100%. It’s absolutely ridiculous!

Having been only a casual user of ebay in the last year, I’ve only recently discovered the degree of ebay interference in the transaction process… now, after an auction successfully ends, they don’t give either seller or buyer the other party’s real email address , and bounce emails that contain it (or contain anything else to which ebay’s stupid, ignorant robot programs object).

Of course ebay’s motive is clamping down on fee avoidance – but this is AFTER the transaction completed, so ebay have already charged the seller their FVF gouge, etc.

The extent to which ebay goes actually makes some transactions frustrating and really hard to complete, say if a collection is to be arranged.

Hard to reconcile this degree of interference with ebay’s claim that it isn’t the auctioneer, but merely is the person who “rents out the space” where the auction is conducted by the seller….

I also note ebay is no longer pretending that the “people” who write you emails are human. Some of us knew all along that Kev, Barbara, Ahmet and Co. were all just (incompetent) computer programs.

I have to laugh at the above comment that real people do not man eaby. That is true. If you ever asked ebay a question and received the totally irrelevent answer you would know that. I suspect that ebay has so many stupid questions that they cannot have live people answer questions. One thing, if you ever have a problem or need assistance, it is nearly impossible to send a note to a real person. If you try to contact ebay you are directed to standard questions that have nothing to do with your question.

Ten years ago I asked ebay to enforce some kind of proof of delivery and they have just implemented that in the past couple of years. Buyers can now get their money back for a misleading titled item or broken item. Why was I concerned about buyers? Because there were so many cheaters and liars selling on ebay it interfered with the honest sellers. Just look up C-6 Christmas lights and you will see half of them are not C-6 at all. I hope the buyers know they can return the item for a full refund.

Use your credit card when buying on ebay. That is just a little added protection. Paypal, AKA ebay, makes it very difficult to use your credit card when purchasing. Paypal automatically dips into your bank account for payment if you have no funds in paypal. That means that paypal has no credit card fees, but they do not give you a discount. In order to use your credit card you have to really look for the little blue line that says, other funding. I still miss it sometimes.

This is a general comment on creating another id on ebay, and law suits.

In order to make a totally new ebay userid you need to become a new person.
First, create a new name for yourself. Use your middle inital as your first name or maybe just first initials. Do not lie. Second, make a new address for yourself, like One One Nine Broadway, instead of 119 broadway. Check with your post office and make sure they will still deliver to your address. Next, make a new bank accout at your bank. Many banks offer free checking accounts so make one with your new name. Nothing illegal so far.

Now obtain a different computer. If you can somehow change your isp provider I think that is a good idea, but I also think using your present isp may work. If ebay challenges you with your new id, tell them that you are not related to Bob Smith and that your name is B J Smith (or whatever your new name is). It would even work better if you could use your spouses name. Just do not do anything illegal.

That will work. I understand why ebay is so cautious. They cannot tolerate dishonest or illegal activity on the ebay site….unless of course they are making money……that is a whole seperate discussion.

As for class action law suits, that is a joke. You have no grounds for a law suit and you do not have near the funds to pursue any. Forget it.

Until the BUYERS go to another site, ebay will hold a monopoly. In case you do not know it, if another site would happen to gain some market share, ebay would simply buy them out. That is what they did with paypal. In the beginning, Paypal was a good company providing a great service. Greedbay, I mean eBay, had their own CC site called Bidpay. People who used ebay hated ebay so much they refused to use Bidpay and Paypal grew and grew. So ebay simply bought out Paypal. End of competition.